Graves of Wrath

by Lina Gardiner

  Another homeless person staggered past them. “Got money?” he asked in broken English. He must have heard them speaking earlier.

  Britt reached into his pocket and handed the man ten euros.

  “Don’t be too generous,” Jess whispered.

  “I just want the guy to get a good meal,” he said. “He looks like he’s starving.”

  “But he could waste it on alcohol or something,” she said.

  Britt’s hands tightened at his sides. “The guy’s existence filled my mind, Jess. He’s down and out, but not a product of self-destruction—just bad luck. An ache in my belly telegraphed the man’s hunger. This man has known more of it than he should have. Honestly, Jess. You might think I’m crazy, but I knew the minute I saw him.”

  Her conscience twisted. Thankfully, Britt had enough humanity for both of them. “You’re a good man, John Brittain,” she said.

  He gave her arm a gentle shove with his elbow. “Don’t go all mushy on me, Vandermire,” he said.

  “Like that’ll ever happen.” Her footsteps faltered, then the air stilled. She held up a hand and listened. “Watch yourself, Britt. There’s a vampire nearby.”

  “Where?” he asked.

  “Behind us.” She spun around to face the stranger moving in on them with obvious intent. If she had time to high-five Britt first, she would have. She needed this fight tonight. It seemed that not all vampires in Europe were civilized after all.

  “Can we help you?” she asked, in case she’d read this guy wrong.

  The vampire didn’t speak. Maybe he didn’t understand English. Either way, his teeth were out and so was his anger. He appeared to be as hungry as the street person they’d seen earlier, and he was obviously intending to satisfy that hunger with them.

  By setting his sights on Jess, likely because she appeared to be the smaller of the two, he’d made a fatal mistake. She pulled her blade out of her pocket slowly and with emphasis, flashing it back and forth. Shaped like a cross with jewels in the hilt, it had been difficult to get into Paris, but she’d figured out a way because it was her favorite weapon.

  The vampire slowed his forward momentum then stopped and frowned.

  “What? Are you scared of a little thing like this?” She slashed the blade back and forth in the air.

  His eyes were thin slits now and his teeth had extended. He licked his lips. “I’m hungry and I want to drink you, vampire. I want to absorb your abilities.”

  “Really? Even if that were possible—which it isn’t—it would be hard to do when you’re getting your ass kicked.” She jumped into the air, twirling like an ice-skater, and coming down at him with the knife aimed and ready.

  Teaching him a lesson, she leaned forward and sliced his face open, then waited for him to make the next move.

  He held a hand to his face, then looked at his blood-covered palm in surprise. He seemed pretty thin and rangy, in worn black cotton pants and a T-shirt. His hair was short and his face deeply shadowed. He brought his fingers back and licked the blood off them. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

  Britt leaned against the wall of the alley, his legs crossed in repose. Because she needed the battle, he’d wait.

  When she dove sideways to avoid the vampire’s lunging teeth, she spotted another vamp. “There’s another one coming and he’s all yours, Britt.”

  Britt had already noticed.

  She returned her full attention to the vampire in front of her. Unfortunately, he wasn’t much of a fighter, and she wasn’t getting the adrenaline surge she’d craved. Maybe this vampire hadn’t been around as long as the others. That would explain his lack of skills.

  “Is that the best you got?” she shouted at him, crooking her finger at him to bring it on.

  Angered by her taunt, he charged. When she stretched out a toe and tripped him, he bashed into the brick wall. Idiot. And when he jumped up again, snarling and hurling more curses at her in both languages, she bared her own elongated teeth.

  He adjusted his belt and growled low in his throat while her gaze shot to his gold-studded, heavily decorated belt. The gold studs were fillings from teeth . . . which meant he’d killed a lot of humans in a city with a supposed peace pact. This unworldly, gaunt beast deserved to die.

  The fact that she was eyeing his belt made him grin, baring lengthening teeth in which he’d also inserted gold from his victims. It seemed he had a penchant for victims with fillings. So why attack her?

  Then she realized the real reason. That stuff about her abilities was just to throw her. She touched the gold-heart locket she wore tonight. It had been a gift from Regent, complete with pictures of their parents inside.

  “You like gold, do you? Well, you’re not getting my necklace, you bastard,” she growled at him. From her peripheral vision, she saw Britt raise his stake to finish off the vamp he’d been fighting. She knew the moment he’d killed the vampire because she heard the explosion of molecules. Since Britt had taken the guy out so forcefully, she guessed he’d missed fighting, too.

  After seeing the other vampire vaporize, her attacker seemed to have second thoughts, and he scrambled to get away. He crawled partway up the wall before she grabbed both of his arms and ripped him backward, then slammed him onto the pavement where she planted her foot on his chest and slowly, deliberately held her blade aloft. She wanted him to know what was coming. He should experience the fear he’d elicited in his victims.

  He writhed under her foot, which was currently jammed into his jugular notch. His tongue extended when she pressed harder. It would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill him. That part came next.

  “Tonight you meet your evil maker and burn in hell,” she said, just before she jammed the blade into his heart. She stepped back, waiting for him to vaporize.

  He died all right, but his body remained. No! Her first instinct had been accurate. He was young. Very young, in vampire terms.

  At home, she had a team to dispose of vampires who didn’t burst into molecules at the moment of their death. What the hell would she do with the corpse of a vampire in Paris?

  Britt approached and looked down at the body. “What’re we going to do with this guy?” he asked, striding to the end of the alley and scanning the sidewalk in both directions. “We can’t just leave him here.” He returned and pushed back the vampire’s lip to see that his lengthened teeth remained. “He’s a dead giveaway to the fact that vampires exist.”

  “Funny,” she quipped. “We have to figure this out. Even after the sun comes up, there’ll still be a burned body that will require answers. We need to get him out of the public eye.”

  “Someone’s coming,” Britt said, grabbing the vamp by the heels and dragging him to the far side of a nearby Dumpster where he couldn’t be seen.

  They waited and listened until the footsteps stopped outside the alley opening.

  “Are you going to hang around in there all night?” Veronique’s voice called from the entrance. “Or do you want my team members to take care of that body for you?”

  Jess and Britt stared at each other, before coming out to greet Veronique. “How’d you know we were there?” Britt asked.

  “How’d we know?” she asked in a cynical voice. “You’re hunting in our city. This is our territory, remember? We try to keep the peace.” Her arms were folded over her chest and her fingers tapped angrily on one arm.

  “Peace, my ass, Vee. We were attacked. If you were watching, you already know that.” She strode back to the corpse and grabbed him by the heels, dragging his body closer to the opening of the alley. Seeing those gold fillings on the vamp’s belt angered her all over again. “I guess this guy’s been killing under your radar. You might want to pull up all of your cold cases with victims who had gold fillings. I have the feeling this bastard’s been responsible for most of them.”

  Veroni
que looked instantly peeved. “I didn’t say we were infallible. I said we try to keep the peace. I’m sure you still have human casualties in New York City, no matter how hard you try to keep people safe. No vampire-hunting team can be everywhere.”

  Jess gritted her teeth.

  “Okay,” Veronique said slowly. “So, why are you here tonight?” She stared at Jess and Britt with that stone-cold stare she’d perfected. “You were obviously looking for a fight tonight.”

  The fact that Britt had slipped his stake back into his shoulder holster hadn’t gone unnoticed by Veronique.

  “I admit it. We thought we’d blow off a little steam, but only if we were attacked first,” Jess said, raising her hands in a questioning manner. “And we were.”

  “I know. I saw it from my location over there,” she said, pointing to a Plexiglas booth on the highest rooftop in the area.

  “Funny, I didn’t sense you,” Jess said.

  “It’s soundproof and completely sealed, so no odors can leak out,” Veronique said, sharing a tip that Jess would take home to her team. She’d just imparted a little bit of free goodwill.

  “This alley is also a particular hotspot for vampire attacks in Paris,” she said. “We can pretty much monitor the vampires from up there.”

  That certainly explained why a lookout would work for them.

  A van pulled up and two men dressed in black jumpsuits exited and approached the body without saying a word.

  “Take this one for disposal,” she said.

  “Is that all you do?” Jess asked. “Dispose of them?”

  Veronique turned a quizzical gaze on her. “What else would we do with them? Stuff them and keep them on our mantel?”

  “No. Have their VNA extracted. Keep a record on file so you’ll know if they come back.”

  “VNA?”

  “It’s like DNA, only for vampires.” It shocked Jess that a country as old as France didn’t have that kind of technology. But then, they didn’t have Sampson Case, Forensic Vampirologist extraordinaire.

  “I think you and I are going to have to talk,” Veronique said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. How does one extract this VNA with most bodies turning to dust and blowing away?”

  “We capture some of the molecules in a vial. My specialist developed the technique, and we actually have quite a large database in New York City.”

  “And the purpose of doing this?”

  Had she not been listening? “For one thing, we like to make sure they stay dead.” Jess frowned. “And, if they’ve recently killed someone, that person’s DNA is extractable from the vampire’s VNA too.”

  “Mon Dieu.”

  Jess watched Veronique’s men efficiently stow the body, then drive away.

  Britt tightened his jacket over his stake before he pulled out the vial of ash he’d extracted from the vamp he’d just killed. “I managed to get a sample of the vampire I staked. I’m pretty sure you’ll find he recently killed a homeless person.”

  “You’re not talking about the man we met earlier, are you?” Jess asked, feeling bad for Britt.

  He nodded, his mouth in a thin line. “I guess it’s not safe for humans around here.”

  “No, it’s not,” Veronique said. “But I can’t very well go on the news and warn transients to stay away from here, now can I?”

  “I’m not blaming you,” Britt said. “It’s just that we’d met the man moments before the vampire killed him. He seemed nice, if down on his luck.”

  Veronique looked serious. “My team found his body already.”

  “So everything’s not as peachy between humans and vampires as we’ve been led to believe,” Jess said.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the full scope of our problems. I was sworn to secrecy.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Now that you know the truth, I’ll be able to disclose a little more.” She glanced at her watch.

  “I see.” Jess shoved her hands into her pockets. She could tell Vee would disclose only what she had to. Sharing information was going to be like pulling teeth.

  “I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot, Jess. I shouldn’t have arrested Britt, I know. But I was desperate. There’s something I haven’t told you about the victims.”

  Jess glanced at Britt, who looked like his spine had locked. “What is it?”

  “Those two victims found in the tunnels . . .”

  “Yes?” Britt said, an urgent tone in his voice. “What about them?”

  “They were numbers nine and ten.”

  “Crap,” Britt growled. “You damned well knew it wasn’t me, then. I wasn’t even in the country for the others.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. But I wanted to give the killer a little leeway to make a mistake. If he thought we blamed you for the murders, he might get sloppy.”

  Jess planted her hands on her hips. “We’re police officers, as well. You damn well should’ve told us that,” she said.

  “I couldn’t.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I think I might have a leak in my unit. There’ve been a few too many stings that have gone wrong lately.”

  “Seems as if you’re in a helluva mess,” Britt said.

  “And you were at the right place at the right time, John. I had to take the opportunity when it presented itself.”

  “His friends call him Britt, but you can call him Lieuten—” Jess said, but Britt placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Britt is fine.”

  Veronique flushed, obviously effectively chastised. “Again, I apologize. I hope we can get past this and work together.”

  “Especially now that you’ve seen what efficient fighters we are,” Britt stated.

  “What I don’t understand is this,” Jess said. “If you have some sort of pact with vampires, why are they still out here killing humans? And why does everyone pretend it isn’t happening?” She paused a moment, then said in a lower voice, “I’d also like to know what hit squads are.”

  “Hit squads? Where’d you hear that?” Veronique asked, instantly on alert again.

  Jess told her about her encounter with the vampires who wanted Veronique to know they weren’t involved with the serial killings.

  “Why did they tell you and not me? It doesn’t make sense . . . unless they know about the leak, too.” She stared up at the tops of the buildings, as if searching for more vampires. “I think it’s time we really talked. We should go get a drink,” Veronique said, suddenly looking pale and tired.

  Jess nodded. “Okay, but I doubt they’ll have my brand.”

  “You might be surprised,” Veronique said. She contacted her team on her cell phone. Once she’d verified they didn’t need her, she led Jess and Britt a few blocks deeper into the old city and down an alley into a secluded bar, jam-packed with patrons.

  Some of them were vampires, Jess noted.

  Britt leaned down to Jess’s ear. “Do you see what I see?”

  Her eyes narrowed while she looked around the dark interior of the bar. “I do. And I don’t care what they serve here. I’m not risking that the drink came from an unwilling donor.”

  “Claude, have you a table for me and my guests?” Veronique asked.

  “Absolutely. Your usual is ready,” he said.

  They were led to a table in the corner where he removed a reserved sign.

  “I’m surprised you think this is a place where we can speak openly,” Britt said, eyeing the many vampires in the room.

  Jess didn’t blame him; vampires had acute hearing, after all.

  “Actually, we can speak freely here. You said you’ve met a vampire who claimed to have a pact with the police?” She indicated the individuals in the room with a sweep of her hand. “Well, the vampires in this room are all members of that pact. We often share intel. And whe
ther you believe it or not, there are some individuals in this room I’d trust more than my own officers.”

  BRITT SLID AN understanding glance at Jess. “I understand that kind of trust.” But only with one person, not a roomful of unknowns.

  Veronique leaned over and pressed a button at the end of the table. A low resonant hum blocked out all sounds around them. “We’re perfectly safe to speak now. No one else in the room can hear us now.”

  “That’s quite the technology,” Britt said.

  Jess remained silent.

  “First off, I want to tell you that we do, in fact, have a treaty with vampires. The pact was made with some of the oldest vampires in the city, but a few of the younger ones are causing trouble,” Veronique said.

  “Is trouble a common occurrence?” Jess asked.

  “Not usually. But this year, we’ve had a few incidents. The general consensus is that these issues are stemming from a recent influx of immigrants.”

  Britt thought about Morana’s friend, Diesel. “Vampire immigrants?”

  “Yes, believe it or not,” she said.

  “Now that you mention it, we’ve had a few unwanted immigrants in New York, ourselves. Mostly master vampires who come in and try to control vampire populations, bending them to their will. It’s like the Mafia moving in and taking over. So far, we’ve been able to eradicate them, but it’s never an easy feat. Maybe that’s what’s happening here?”

  “I hope not,” Veronique said. “Who was the vampire who told you he and his kind weren’t involved in the killings?”

  “Morana called him Vin,” Jess said, then described him.

  Veronique seemed to know who he was. If she was disturbed by the information, she didn’t give anything away.

  A lanky, well-dressed vampire approached their table with a ceramic chalice in his hand. “Good evening, Captain LaFontaine.” His cold, black eyes settled on Jess and stayed there for way too long before he sat beside Veronique.

  “Hello, Vlad,” Veronique said.

  Britt’s muscles tightened to the point of nearly cramping. “Vlad?”

  The vampire turned his attention to Britt. “Calm yourself, human. It’s just a nickname. I’m no relation to Vlad the Impaler, of course.”